The Lava Tube Hale #6

“He’s a ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ kinda guy. I’m a ‘Give us this day our daily rice’ kinda girl.”

Dear Verna,

So we have a neighbor. I know! Cry, sob, throw my head back and wail at the sky. I was SO hoping theproperty owner was planning to hang onto it for a few years and then sell it to US! But no. We saw that the property had sold a few months before we purchased ours, but nothing had been happening there yet and we were overjoyed. We wanted to buy it in the future so we’d have 2 acres side by side and the nearest neighbors would be far from hearing distance.

His name is Joe. He’s from Ohio and is a middle aged, single, white guy who plays country music non stop and is a retiring wrestling coach. He seems to join one of the larger demographics of homeowners out here. Pray we inspire other young couples and young artists to live out here and round out the median age of such a self sufficient and independent community. 😉 I often think, if all hell breaks loose, lots of the island will be seeing refuge and migrating to friends in HOVE that are off the grid. Terrible thought about all hell breaking loose, but one that makes sense. Nearly every occupied property has a water tank, and the solar is in vast amounts. I’m getting our quote right now about how much our solar system would cost. We really want to have our home and the little art hales to be on solar and only use our HELCO electric to charge the car. And who knows, we may have to go full solar. I just finished up at the county building dept having jumped through every hoop they have asked me to with minimal results. There was always another step, another person who’s stamp I needed (who I have to hire and pay), another paper to submit. Our issue is that there were existing structures on our property that never received final inspection and what was submitted to the county wasn’t what was actually built. So now, after exhausting every route they made me take to legitimize the permit they have on file for my ‘ag shed’, they’re finally letting me kill the permit and start all over again. Which is exactly what I wanted to do the first day I walked in there! But they needed me to go through all the hoops of trying to get that old permit to work. Which it doesn’t, and they probably knew it wouldn’t. I was of the mind that government works for US. We shouldn’t run around spending money we don’t have on solving the issues of THEIR lost plans for our permit. But we do. Because they are the county. They have complete power over us and there’s no one else to go to. With over 60 complaints by the county for removal of residents out in HOVE that are living in unpermitted structures, you’d think we’d be getting a thank you note for going the legit route! And you know me. I, just like you, rarely EVER follow the rules. So far this experience isn’t changing me towards additional rule following in the future. ;D I told the head lady at the counter, “I have this huge team of people helping me, and no one nails nails! All these guys, and nothing has gotten done on my property.” She laughed and said, “That’s a good one!!!” I had them all rolling.

But with just the two of us, we are getting things done on the property, SANS architect, designer, electrical contractor, electrical inspector, electrical engineer, building dept, and HELCO. Lover’s last two days off, he was the chainsaw king! All those ‘rubbish’ trees with the yellow flowers are gonners! He was just on such a mission, working all day and opening up spaces, and leaving the Ohias with their natural, perfect spacing. He’s also super into his rock wall building and he so reminds me of you! He sees a good rock and gets all excited. ;D I found this awesome wheelbarrow at Lowes for him to move rocks around. It has two wheels instead of one; SO much better for the terrain we are on. Well, that’s not totally true. I found a metal wheelbarrow that I was going to buy but when I put all my purchases in it, AND Bug, I could hardly keep the damn thing upright on the way to the checkout!! I slowly and scraggily made it back to the wheelbarrow aisle and transferred everything into the ‘Gorilla… impossible to tip over’ version made for people like ME (so sad). Lover loves it though! And on those two days off, between restoring our rock walls and getting rid of the ‘rubbish’ trees, he worked SO hard. I told him, “You are storing up some serious gracious space! You’ll be able to do no wrong for a long time. More than usual clothes on the floor? No problem! Dinner pot left unsoaked and crusty? I’ll clean it!!” Gracious space is magical.

Though Lover has stored up vast amounts of gracious space, it is NOT transferrable. Afterdropping Lover at work, I went to target to get a little charge before myappointment at the county office. I was all pau and just about to take off whenthis lady pulls up next to me and yells across her elderly passenger, “YOU’RE PARTIALLY PARKED IN THE HANDICAPPED SPACE!!” She totally scared me with howrude and loud she was. The poor man next to her looked so ashamed and gave methis ‘I’m sorry’ look, hanging his head low. So I yelled back at her, “YOU’RE EMBARRASSING HIM!” A mean driver can’t be good for a handicap person, right? Or any person for that matter. My God, I thought she was gonna get out of the carand beat me up. And she was a big white girl. Though, now that I think of it,she was big, but may not have been tall. I just had to look up at them becauseshe was in an SUV. So her passenger and I shared a smile. In her defense though, I WAS on the line. Not over it, but on it.

Later in the afternoon, I went to Costco to get those solar motion sensor spotlights for the gate. The ones you guys have that Costco carries? It will be so nice to have that light come on instead of always having my headlamp in my purse or in the car to open the lock on the gate. So I get the car all plugged in and charging at Costco and head in. BUT they won’t let Buggie in anymore in my purse! UGH. Even though she’s an emotional support animal, they only now let service animals in. The greeter made me walk outside with her to read this big sign posted on the wall. So with the lady yelling at me for the handicap space, and Costco not allowing Bug anymore, I’m getting NOTHING done and town is feeling very foreign.

But I still needed to charge before going back to Ka’u so it was BACK to Target. Target, where their mascot is a dog and Bug is always welcome!!! And this time when I parked, I was aware of the green line that divides the EVs from the Handicaps and didn’t park ON it. See! Her yelling at me was very effective! She’d be so proud. 😀

I maybe should not have mentioned her passenger though, it IS the season of lent. But for lent, I’m giving up meat for all 40 days, I didn’t promise I’d be nice to meanies! Lover is telling everyone at the butcher shop that he’s giving up the last 2 hours of business every day for the Lenten season. What sacrifice. Haha!! 😀

So much more to tell you but gotta go.

Noelani from Molokai was just here! Good stories from her visit. Oh! And Lover wants to guest author one of the blog posts. But he hasn’t read any of them. Ahahaha!!! This should be really good.

I love you!

KK